Will you vote?

Let me preface this piece by qouting that New Yorker, Sharon Salzberg. Speaking of voting, she says "... it is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world."As we vote, we need to ask what that vote is meant to do for ourselves and our children and indeed we must answer what that vote would mean for those who can't vote.Will your vote, for instance, translate to clean drinking water for everybody?Will it serve to reduce the number of poor people, especially blacks, dying unnecessarily while waiting in long queues at hospitals and clinics, themselves understaffed and without the necessary medical supplies?Will your vote mean free quality education for those deserving but too impoverished to afford it? Will your vote cause substantial investment in turning largely black universities into academic powerhouses like those that were previously for whites only?Will your vote keep the lights going in Langa, so that women and young girls can feel safe day and night there? Without having to march and burn houses and cause unrest, will your vote translate into safe recreational facilities for boys and girls in Nkowankowa?Will your vote perpetuate the indignity of all blacks with sewerage streaming across the streets of Alex, or will it put an end to it?Will your vote protect the workers in Marikana so that they are free and able to stand up for themselves and their families, demanding a small fraction of what whites make out of their labour, or will you vote to buy more guns to carry out another massacre against those demanding a dignified life?Will you vote to ensure that state resources are deployed to improve our lives instead of the lives of those in power and a few politically connected people?Will you save us through your vote from being terrified by the mere sight of our own police officers? Remember what they did to Andries Tatane?Will your vote assure blacks a return of their land, or will you send us deeper into the misery only suffered by blacks?And what about our continent and our brothers and sisters across its length and breadth? What will your vote mean for Africa?Will you ensure that your vote frees it from the grip of Europe and the United States of America? Will you vote into power a government that will not accept regime change and assassinations, such as what happened to Brother Leader Gaddafi?Will you protect Robert Mogabe from the Western onslaught opposed to his efforts to give blacks in Zimbabwe human and basic dignity of owning their own country, their land and benefiting from their country's mineral resources?Will your vote continue to indignify fellow Africans here, treating them as unwanted foreigners while treating Europeans like untouchable kings and queens?Will your vote return the teachings and spirit of Thomas Sankara to Burkina Faso? Will your vote in fact spread his leadership wisdom and that of Nkuruma across the entire continent?Will your vote amount to a contribution to peace, justice and stability in the war torn Democratic Republic of Congo, in the unstable Central African Republic, as well as in the ravaged Sudan?Will your vote bring Biko a smile? Will you make his struggle and his brutal murder worth the while? Will your vote lend a hand to the realisation of the aspirational ideal of South Africa belonging "to everyone who lives in it, black and white"?Will you vote to free those who oppress others? Will your vote make those whites who are determined to abuse and exploit our mothers and fathers everyday at the plantations see the light? Will your vote make all us of black and white simply human? No baas, no kaffer - just equal human beings?Indeed which party in our political landscape stands for these ideals?I ask these questions because with that vote comes a huge responsibility. Your vote alone is at once important to you and the other. My vote like yours is a secret, but I know mine stands for radical change aimed at giving blacks their dignity back while simultaneously freeing willing whites from oppressing others. Maruping Phepheng is reading for his MA in Creative Writing with Rhodes University, South Africa. He wrote a book called "What Happens In Hankaroo..." His next work of fiction called "Of Anger and Revenge" will be out soon. His twitter handle is @TheDukeP.

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.

Smaller parties, notably, took a beating. AGANG never made it to the start and COPE became a footnote. The IFP's support was halved, a prime reason being the NFP (IFP rebels), entering the KZN political arena.

24.com publishes all comments posted on articles provided that they adhere to our Comments Policy. Should you wish to report a comment for editorial review, please do so by clicking the 'Report Comment' button to the right of each comment.